Social Practice Queens (SPQ) is a unique MFA concentration and Advanced Post-Graduate Certificate program bringing together the resources of an academic research institution, Queens College CUNY, with the dedicated community activism of the Queens Museum.

The MFA concentration and Advanced Certificate Program in social practice integrate studio work with social, tactical, interventionist, and cooperative forms. SPQ’s goal is to initiate interdisciplinary projects with real world outcomes rooted in CUNY’s rigorous departmental offerings in tandem with the Queens Museum’s ongoing community engagement programs. Recently SPQ has developed a cross-disciplinary partnership with the Queens College Department of Urban Studies to merge an education in urban research and service learning with strategies in new genre public and community arts. SPQ is looking for students seeking to work at the intersection of, and explore the relationship between, art and social action, as well as for public practitioners already active in this area who wish to further concentrate their work in a hybrid academic and community-based setting.

Every MFA candidate enjoys a large, private workspace with 24-hour access to wood, metal, plaster, ceramic, digital and traditional photo facilities, 3D printing, and an on-site bronze foundry, that is unique within the CUNY system. In addition each SPQ student receives access to a shared workspace and studio artist professional development programs at the Queens Museum.

SPQ offers a competitive in-state tuition and was awarded grants from the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation and the Vilcek Foundation to financially support the further development of both New York-based and international student-led community art projects in the borough of Queens and beyond. SPQ students can also join in faculty-led travel research and engagement projects supported by the college in collaboration partnering institutions. For example in 2018, SPQ was awarded a grant to travel to Puerto Rico to study community-driven land-use initiatives. In past years students and faculty have participated co-design process of local public spaces, worked with the Queens Museum on cultural programs and participated in the Venice Biennial.

SPQ’s recently published book Art as Social Action: An Introduction to the Principles and Practices of Teaching Social Practice Art, emerges from the program’s unique pedagogical style. The book offers artists and teachers, detailed, tested lesson plans that model how critical thinking, making, and writing can be integrated into socially engaged projects that deepen learning and progressive community impact.